I picked up some nice English-cut short ribs and after going through Ribs, Ribs, Ribs. I decided to try the recipe called "Grandpa's Barbecued Pastramied Short Ribs".

It starts with a wet rub that includes anise, which is why I asked the question about anise substitutes a few days ago. In this case I decided to use a liquid extract.

The ribs were good and meaty so I was able to use a lot of rub. Of course, being short ribs they were also good and fatty.

The ribs can be either grilled indirect or smoked, and I chose to do the former with Royal Oak briquettes and a little oak in the 22" Weber kettle. They developed a very nice crust and the fat is pretty obvious.

I didn't get as much of a smoke ring as I thought I might but the meat came out pretty tender and really does have a pastrami-like flavor. I would definitely make these again!

Brad:
I missed this post initially because this section is kinda off my radar screen. Those ribs looked great to me and it sounds like they tasted great too. As for the smoke ring, it looks about like what I'd expect from the beef ribs I've done. It doesn't penetrate into the meat as far as pork, but it is a more intense color.

I'm curious if you were even able to detect the flavor of the anise with everything else going on in those ribs?

Hi Brad, I did'nt know that English short cut ribs are tender? When I lived in the UK every steak and rib I had was so thin and tough. It was only when I moved to Germany that I realised that steak on the European Continent was nice and thick and a good steak had fat so that it tastes like a steak, as in the US.

Maybe I should've referred to them as "relatively tender". It definitely helped to cut them as thin as possible!